メロウレイン / Futtara Doshaburi Mellow Rain

Bubbles

“I’ve got a favour to ask.”

Sei said it in such a formal tone that Hagiwara remembered the conversation clearly. It had been shortly after the New Year.

“What is it?”

“Are you thinking of going on this year’s company trip, Hagiwara?”

“Eh?”

The company held its annual staff trips in June and October, with each department assigned to one or the other. Participation was supposedly optional, though it was the sort of corporate event where everyone was expected to read the room and attend at least once. Hagiwara didn’t particularly dislike them. They offered considerably more freedom than school trips, alcohol was permitted, and he had sometimes found himself unexpectedly getting along with colleagues and superiors whom he’d never been particularly comfortable around.

So, unless he had something else he wanted to prioritise when it came time to sign up, he generally took part.

“Hmm. But Sales is on the June trip this year…”

That was right in the middle of the summer bonus sales campaign.

“I’ve got the shareholders’ meeting as well. Apparently I’ll have to study all sorts of things about corporate governance and stewardship codes this year.”

“Huh… Wait, Nakarai-san, are you actually going? Have you ever been before?”

“No.”

Hagiwara nodded. He ought to have known without asking. Sei looked a little sheepish.

“It’s not that I stayed away because I hated it. Well, I do hate it, but that’s not really the point.”

“Which is it?”

“Until now, they’ve always been coach trips. You know I can’t cope with cars, and I had a medical certificate to excuse me.”

“Ah… right. Sorry.”

Hagiwara’s expression turned serious, but Sei gave a small laugh.

“It’s fine. This year we’re going to Ise Grand Shrine, and most of the journey will be by Shinkansen and Kintetsu, so I thought I might be able to manage it. And I probably shouldn’t keep missing the trips forever.”

“But you can’t avoid road transport completely, can you?”

“There are two main shrines at Ise, and apparently you take a bus between them. Though it seems you can get there by train if you really need to. And the hotel’s in Toba, about twenty minutes from the station by shuttle bus.”

Strictly speaking, nobody could force Sei to go. Hagiwara thought he shouldn’t push himself, but Sei said, “I want to try challenging myself a little.”

“When I think about never getting into another car for the rest of my life… maybe I could manage without doing it, but I don’t like the thought. So come with me, Hagiwara. General Affairs and Sales have the same dates for once.”

The way he delivered that final request with such unexpected firmness was typical of Sei.

“I won’t be much use. I could hold a plastic bag in front of your mouth, I suppose—except it isn’t ordinary travel sickness, is it?”

“Having you there would make me feel safer. That’s all I need.”

When Sei said something like that so casually, what else could Hagiwara do but agree?

“Of course I’ll go.”

“Thank you. …And if I try getting into a vehicle and can’t manage it, it won’t be your fault. Don’t blame yourself.”

“Mm.”

“If it doesn’t work out, we’ll get off the bus halfway and walk the rest of the way to the hotel.”

Sei nodded happily.

“My wife told me they rebuild Ise Grand Shrine once every twenty years,” Adachi said on the outward journey, aboard the Nozomi.

“Really? Is that what all the fuss about the shrine’s rebuilding ceremony was?”

“Apparently. She asked how I could possibly not know. But that’s about the level of interest most men have in shrines, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. Unless they’re supposed to be some kind of power spot.”

“If there were rare-earth minerals buried there, I could see the appeal.”

“Anyway, if they keep tearing it down and rebuilding it, does it have any historical value? I thought the impressive thing about World Heritage sites was how old they were.”

“Exactly. If it’s only twenty years old, Nakarai-san’s flat has more history.”

“True. Maybe they could renovate that while they’re at it.”

The three were chatting in a row of seats when a manager from Sales leaned over from the row in front.

“You lot… don’t say things like that when we get there. And whatever you do, don’t mention the company’s name.”

“Eh? Why?”

“Because you’ll make complete fools of yourselves.”

Undeterred, Adachi began dreaming aloud.

“Actually, if we make it obvious we’re beginners, maybe one of the shrine maidens will show us around and explain everything.”

“You’re a father now. Give it a rest.”

“Ehh, I’ve only seen my baby a handful of times. It still doesn’t feel real.”

His wife was staying with her parents after the birth, which was precisely why he could come along on the company trip so easily.

“Anyway, it’s nice seeing the women from work in their own clothes, isn’t it? Sometimes someone you wouldn’t expect turns out to have surprisingly good taste. And once we get to the hotel, they’ll be in yukata. Bloody hell. If someone asked me to make a special holiday memory together, I’m not sure I could refuse.”

“Adachi-kun, divine punishment is going to strike you the moment you pass through the torii gate.”

They travelled to Nagoya by Shinkansen, then continued on a Kintetsu limited express service to Ise City Station. The whole journey took about three hours.

“Right, everyone, please meet back here at four this afternoon. Anyone using the guided tour at Ise Grand Shrine should come with the organisers.”

Hagiwara asked the other two what they wanted to do. Both Sei and Adachi shook their heads.

“I suppose we’ll leave Ise Grand Shrine knowing just as little as we did when we arrived.”

“Eh? We’ve already learnt the basics, haven’t we?”

From the tourist information booklet at the station, at any rate.

“There’s the Inner Shrine and the Outer Shrine, and you’re meant to visit the Outer Shrine first.”

There was a neatly paved street lined with souvenir shops and restaurants just outside the station, so they stopped at a convenient place for lunch. Beyond the street and across a pedestrian crossing stood a splendid stone lantern, perhaps five metres high. The greenery was dense, and nothing obstructed the sky. There was something almost thrilling about such an uncomplicated landscape, so unlike anything they ordinarily encountered in Tokyo, as though they had wandered into another world.

They walked along the gravelled approach, crossed the Hiyokebashi Bridge, admired Magatama Pond and rinsed their hands and mouths at the purification basin. Their attitude was casual: wander around, and whenever they reached somewhere suitable for prayer, put their hands together.

More than anything, the trees were astonishing. Almost every one was so tall that looking up made Hagiwara’s neck ache. Any individual tree would have qualified as a sacred tree at an ordinary shrine. He found the term ‘power spot’ dubious, but he could understand why visitors hoped such a place might benefit their bodies and minds.

“The booklet says to start at the main sanctuary.”

“And then?”

“Takanomiya, Tsuchinomiya, Shimomii Shrine, Kazenomiya, Watarai Kunimi Shrine and Ōtsu Shrine…”

“That’s a lot.”

Perhaps because the extensive grounds were renewed every twenty years, ropes closed off many areas to visitors. Still, shrines appeared everywhere, and as the three of them continued dropping coins into offering boxes out of habit rather than any great religious conviction, they soon ran out of change.

“It’s like going abroad and having to leave a tip every time you do anything,” Adachi complained.

“Well, rebuilding costs money. That guide we passed earlier said they spent fifty-five billion yen last year.”

“Seriously? Bloody hell. Impressive, God.”

Usually, when you ran out of small change at a shrine, you could buy a fortune slip and break a banknote. But apparently Ise Grand Shrine didn’t sell them. According to Adachi, who had gone out of his way to ask at the Kaguraden, merely visiting the shrine already brought blessings equivalent to receiving the best possible fortune.

They could stand to be a little more commercial, the three joked. Wouldn’t it be convenient if you could make an offering with electronic money? Exchanging thoroughly irreverent remarks, they spent a little over an hour visiting the shrines and wandering through the grounds.

When they emerged, a silent question passed between them.

*Well, what now?*

Ise Grand Shrine consisted of the Outer and Inner Shrines, and ordinarily a proper pilgrimage included both.

“I’m tired.”

Sei voiced what all three were probably thinking. The unfamiliar gravel, the vast grounds and the frequent flights of stone steps had been exhausting.

“…Yeah.”

“I wonder what the Inner Shrine is like.”

“Probably not all that different from the Outer Shrine. Oh, and my wife says there’s an Akafuku sweet shop nearby, in Okage Yokocho. The original one.”

“That’s got nothing to do with the shrine.”

After a short silence, they unanimously decided that they’d done enough.

“I’ve probably done about ten years’ worth of shrine visits today. The Inner Shrine can wait another ten years.”

“We saw the Sengūkan Museum too. And we learnt about *yuitsu-shinmei-zukuri*, that building style with a name like a special finishing move.”

“We won’t be punished for stopping halfway, will we?”

“Funny how you were dismissing power spots earlier, but now you’re talking as though there’s definitely someone up there to punish us.”

Having thoroughly justified their laziness and impiety, they turned to the question of how to spend the hours before the meeting time.

“Why don’t we just go to the hotel?” Hagiwara suggested.

“It’s near Toba Station, isn’t it? We can let the organiser know and head over ourselves. We’ll pay for a taxi.”

“But we can’t check in without the organiser.”

“We could have a coffee in the lobby and wait. We’d only be killing time here otherwise.”

“Fair enough.”

Hagiwara was about to phone the organiser when Adachi raised a hand.

“Hang on. Bad news. My wife just sent me a LINE message telling me to buy a protective charm.”

“Then go back and buy one quickly. We’ll wait.”

“No, apparently I’m supposed to buy the charm pouch at the Outer Shrine, then buy a wooden tablet or something at the Inner Shrine and put it inside. So… I’ll have to spend a bit longer in Ise.”

“Good luck!”

“Bring us some blessings while you’re at it.”

They watched Adachi walk back towards the Outer Shrine, and Sei laughed softly.

“What?”

“Adachi-kun really is kind, in his own way. He could buy everything at the Outer Shrine, and his wife would never know, but he’s going to do the errand properly.”

“Maybe there’s an ‘Inner’ or ‘Outer’ stamp on the charms.”

“But once you’ve put something inside a charm pouch, aren’t you supposed to leave it closed? Weren’t we told not to look inside?”

“Were we?”

They took another limited express train from Ise City towards Toba. In sharp contrast with the deep greenery around the shrine, everything here spoke of the sea. There were ageing tourist centres and an aquarium, exactly the sort of scenery you might expect from an old-fashioned regional holiday town.

As they passed through the ticket barriers and approached the taxi rank, Sei’s expression tightened.

“Nakarai-san.”

“Mm. I’m fine. I’m fine.”

Sei looked as though he were trying to convince himself. Watching him, Hagiwara took something from his jeans pocket.

“Here.”

He held out a red protective charm embroidered in gold thread with the words *Road Safety*.

He saw Sei’s tension give way to surprise.

“It’s from the most important shrine in Japan, after all.”

“Eh? Seriously? When did you buy that?”

“Secret.”

“Then perhaps we should’ve gone to the Inner Shrine properly too.”

“What, because the blessings are only half as strong? If you round up, it’s the same thing.”

“That’s a pretty casual attitude…”

Sei closed his fingers tightly around the charm.

“Thank you,” he said quietly.

They got into a taxi without having to wait. The driver made the usual small talk, asking where they’d come from and whether they’d visited Ise Grand Shrine. Hagiwara answered most of it while Sei turned almost his entire body towards the window, doing his best to distract himself with the view.

Even so, each time a vehicle passed in the opposite direction, or the taxi braked at a traffic light, Hagiwara saw Sei’s shoulders and neck stiffen unnaturally.

Sei’s free hand wandered uncertainly over the middle of the back seat. Hagiwara took it firmly in his own.

Sei turned towards him.

Hagiwara nodded without speaking.

*I don’t care if the driver can see us in the rear-view mirror.*

He tightened his grip, hoping his palm would warm those cold fingers.

By the time they reached the hotel, all the colour had drained from Sei’s face. Nevertheless, he picked up his own luggage and walked inside steadily.

“…Are you all right?”

“Mm.”

Sei nodded, looked at Hagiwara and said, “I did it.”

“I managed to ride in a car.”

“…Yeah.”

Hagiwara understood that what Sei had wanted to overcome was far more than the simple act of *getting into a car*. And it made him happy that Sei had wanted to attempt it because Hagiwara was there with him.

In the lobby overlooking the sea, they were served hot hand towels and bancha tea. Little by little, colour returned to Sei’s cheeks.

“…My primary-school trip was to Nikkō.”

“Ah, yes. That’s a common one.”

“I bought a road-safety charm at Tōshōgū Shrine. My parents had just bought a new car. …And it stayed hanging from the rear-view mirror right up to the very end.”

“Sorry.”

Hagiwara apologised instinctively. Had his gift done the exact opposite of what he intended?

But Sei shook his head.

“No. I was happy. Really. I can’t explain it properly, but I think now, whatever car I get into, I won’t have to look for that old charm any more. I won’t have to keep thinking, *But I bought it for them.*”

“…If that’s how you feel, then I’m glad.”

They gazed at the sea together in companionable silence. The hotel overlooked a small fishing harbour, where rows of little fishing boats were moored. This wasn’t a marina of yachts and pleasure boats, but a sea that people relied upon for their livelihoods. Green hills extended around the bay, dotted with hotels and inns. The afternoon sunlight shimmered across the water in countless star-shaped reflections.

After dinner and the first part of the company banquet, a pushy manager and the colleagues who couldn’t escape him headed off to a bar. Hagiwara declined, slipped into the large communal bath, then went out to the observation deck connected to the lobby to enjoy the breeze.

“Yeah, I definitely bought it.”

A familiar voice reached him.

Small lights doubling as guide lamps were set at intervals along the ground, but the surroundings were nowhere near as bright as the city. Hagiwara peered through the darkness and spotted Adachi leaning over the railing, his back bent as he spoke on his phone.

“Oh, has she started crying? …Let me talk to her.”

Then Adachi began speaking in a voice Hagiwara both knew and didn’t know. It was recognisably Adachi, yet unlike the Adachi he knew: sweet and gentle, and completely different from the way he sounded when flirting with women.

“Saho-chan, what’s wrong? It’s Daddy. Can’t you sleep, Saho-chan?”

For a moment Hagiwara wondered whether to move away, but he hadn’t witnessed anything embarrassing or wrong, so he simply stayed where he was.

Eventually Adachi ended the call and turned around.

“Hard work, eh?”

“Oh, hey.”

“So you really are being a dad. And you said it still didn’t feel real.”

“Shh! Keep it down. You’ll ruin my chances with the ladies.”

“You’re still not giving that up?”

They stood side by side, looking out at the night sea.

“What’s it actually like, having a child?”

“If you want to know, get married and have one.”

“Hmm…”

Hagiwara deflected the suggestion with a wry smile, and Adachi didn’t press him. How much longer would the excuse that he was still getting over his previous relationship remain useful?

“I thought it would be harder,” Adachi said. “More of a burden, I suppose.”

Hagiwara listened.

“Like being tied down. You know how much I hate that sort of thing. But when she was actually born, it was the exact opposite. I felt unbelievably relieved.”

“Why?”

“Because I thought, *Ah, I could die at any time now.*”

“Surely that’s backwards. Shouldn’t it mean you have even more reason to work hard?”

“Of course there’s that. But it isn’t logical. It’s like I’ve passed on the baton and done what I was supposed to do. Maybe it’s instinct. Strange, isn’t it? I’d never once seriously thought I had to leave descendants behind.”

For an instant, Hagiwara felt an enormous distance open between them. A loneliness rose in him, the helpless feeling of being the only one separated from a great herd.

But almost immediately he thought, *No, that’s all right.*

There was no sense that he had sacrificed something or resigned himself to less than he wanted.

*Because I’m with him.*

The realisation brought him relief.

He wanted to see Sei. Their room assignments and dinner tables were different, so they’d barely spoken since the late afternoon.

Hagiwara sent a message asking, *What are you doing?*

A reply arrived almost at once.

*I was just about to contact you.*

*Can you get away for a bit?*

The room Sei specified was in a different building from the one where Hagiwara was staying. Was Sei drinking with someone in another guest’s room? That would be unusual.

Hagiwara walked along a connecting corridor, went downstairs to the ground floor and knocked at the room bearing the specified number.

Sei opened the door.

“Is General Affairs staying in the other building?”

“No, no. Come in.”

It was a sophisticated Japanese-Western-style room, quite different from the others. About half the Japanese-style area had wooden flooring, with two beds placed side by side.

“Whoa. What’s this place?”

“Our department manager’s room.”

“Seriously? It’s even got an open-air bath. Management gets all the perks…”

Not that Hagiwara would have wanted the manager joining them in their shared four-person room, either.

“So where’s your manager?”

“He suddenly asked me to exchange rooms with him. I might have earned the resentment of whoever was supposed to share this one.”

“Why would he want to swap?”

“You won’t be put off if I tell you?”

“I won’t know until you do.”

“…Apparently a woman appears here.”

“Huh?”

Hagiwara considered those words and arrived at one possible explanation.

“Someone spying on people?”

There was an outdoor bath, after all.

“Oh. If that’s your reaction, it should be fine.”

“Wait. Do you mean something supernatural?”

“Surely that’s what people would normally think.”

“Because it doesn’t ring true to me at all.”

A chill in the air, a feeling of being watched—he’d never particularly believed in that sort of thing.

“Doesn’t it bother you, Nakarai-san?”

“No.”

Sei spoke quietly.

“Dead people can’t do anything to us anyway.”

There was a lonely weight to those words.

“Hagiwara, would it be a problem if you didn’t go back to your room?”

“No, not really.”

They weren’t children. His roommates would probably assume he had fallen asleep at someone else’s gathering.

After making absolutely sure the door was locked, they went into the open-air bath together.

They lit the lantern standing on the wooden slats and opened the small shuttered window in the middle of the fence. Suddenly, a framed view of the sea appeared, and the sound of the waves seemed to come much closer. It was wonderfully atmospheric, although the bath also had a net for scooping out insects. A practical touch. Naturally, if you switched on a light outdoors at night, all sorts of things would be attracted to it.

It wasn’t especially late, yet the mountains and the sea had already settled so deeply into the darkness that they seemed asleep. Humans were the only things still noisily awake; now and then the wind carried the voices of drunken guests towards them.

The hotel was built on a slope, so even though their room was technically on the ground floor, nobody was likely to look in. Still, Hagiwara felt uneasy and closed the window again. The lamplight gathered inside the small enclosed garden.

They were sitting close together in the broad, curved bath, their bodies fitted against one another. A large shadow appeared on the shutter.

“You know,” Sei said, “there was a story in *Doraemon*… Do you remember it? Someone turns his own shadow into a double and makes it do useful things for him, like homework and errands. But eventually the shadow develops a personality and tries to take over the original person…”

“I don’t remember.”

“I can’t remember how it ended, either. But it terrified me. I used to put the comics on the shelf backwards so I couldn’t see their spines.”

“Ah, when I was a kid, there was a picture book with drawings that frightened me. I shoved it right to the bottom of my toy box. Then I forgot I’d hidden it there, and when I found it again by accident it was twice as scary.”

“I know exactly what you mean.”

Sei’s shoulders moved as he laughed.

His skin was lit the colour of a ripe persimmon. Tiny droplets of water clung to his neck and back, and the reflected patterns of water danced over him. Each time Hagiwara shifted, the patterns changed, wavering gently over Sei’s bare skin.

Patches of light and shade, like a translucent tattoo.

It was a mesmerising sight. Hagiwara felt that if he painted a fish on that skin, it might swim freely across it.

He narrowed his eyes, almost hypnotised.

“Beautiful,” he murmured.

How wonderful it would be to preserve the image just as it was, not in a photograph or video, but in an aquarium he could gaze into whenever he wished.

“What is?” Sei asked.

“The patterns the water makes.”

“What does that even mean? …And, by the way…”

Sei pointed out in a conspiratorial whisper that Hagiwara’s arousal was pressing against him.

“What did you expect? We’re sitting this close together.”

“But we can’t really do anything here, can we?”

Despite that, Sei continued to lean fully against him and turned his head.

Hagiwara cupped his chin and kissed him. Perhaps because the hot spring was close to the sea, the water had a faint salty smell. He kissed Sei’s lips, softened by the water.

“…You’ll get overheated.”

“Mm.”

And if they carried on, they might end up going much further, without caring where they were.

They exchanged several brief, reluctant kisses before Sei said, “Stand up.”

“And sit there.”

Hagiwara immediately understood what Sei intended. He perched on the curved edge of the tub and left enough space between his legs for Sei to move closer.

Sei lowered his face between them.

Perhaps because they were surrounded by hot water, his mouth felt warmer than usual. It was strange that being touched so intimately could also make Hagiwara feel so comforted.

“…The water here tastes salty,” Sei muttered before taking him into his mouth again.

“Mm…”

The gentle suction of Sei’s lips made Hagiwara harden almost immediately. Sei stroked the part he couldn’t take into his mouth with one hand, while holding Hagiwara’s hand with the other. When Hagiwara smoothed his damp hair, Sei narrowed his eyes like a cat.

Hagiwara felt a rush of love for him. It wasn’t simply because Sei was making him feel good.

“Ah…!”

When Sei took him deeper, Hagiwara instinctively bent forwards.

“Mm… You don’t have to go so far. It must be uncomfortable.”

“Mm-mm.”

Sei drew back for a moment and moved his hand over the slick length of him.

“I like it. I like feeling you against the soft part at the back of my mouth.”

“…Idiot.”

How was Hagiwara supposed to endure hearing something like that? Sei’s lips closed around him again, his tongue teasing him, and Hagiwara lost control.

“Ah… ngh…!”

Embarrassingly, he climaxed while holding Sei’s head almost as though pressing him closer. Sei swallowed without hesitation, then rested limply against Hagiwara’s leg.

“Hot,” he said with a laugh.

“Shall we swap?”

“Not here. I’ll make too much noise.”

In that case, Hagiwara climbed out onto the wooden slats, hurriedly dried himself and spread a fresh bath towel over the bed before pushing Sei’s naked body down onto it.

“Ah…!”

“Made a mistake,” Hagiwara murmured as he touched Sei’s lower abdomen.

“Eh?”

“I’ve missed out on the pleasure of undressing you from your yukata.”

“Shall I put it back on?”

“Hmm. No, I’ll save that for next time.”

“Next time?”

“Mm.”

Maybe it wouldn’t be for another ten years. But next time, he wanted it to be a proper trip, with just the two of them.

He couldn’t tell whether it was the middle of the night or already close to dawn. The one thing he knew was that it was still completely dark outside.

*Fwee, fwee, fwee…*

A bird? At this hour?

The sound of chirping seemed to take shape and push itself straight into Hagiwara’s ears, waking him abruptly.

It was very close. In fact, it almost sounded as though it were coming from inside the room.

*Fwee, fwee, fwee…*

There was something strangely melancholy about its rhythm.

As Hagiwara stared into the darkness, his eyes gradually adjusted. The walls and ceiling began to emerge, but there was no sign of any animal. Was someone in the next room practising on some unusual musical instrument?

Sei was sleeping soundly beside him, apparently oblivious to the noise.

Hagiwara straightened his loosened yukata and drew Sei against him, sharing his warmth. Before long, he grew sleepy again. As his awareness dissolved, the strange cry gradually faded into the distance.

On the second day, they were free until the limited express train back to Nagoya was due to depart.

Adachi had apparently received another instruction to buy something: this time, pearls. So Hagiwara accompanied him to Mikimoto Pearl Island. Despite its name, the island was very close to Toba Station and could be reached on foot.

“Hey, hey, they do demonstrations by *ama* divers. Let’s watch.”

“What exactly did you come here for?”

“There might be someone like the girls in *Amachan*.”

“Those girls are on television precisely because you don’t see people like them every day…”

Hagiwara wasn’t especially comfortable with the idea of treating other people’s work as a performance. But the island announcements repeatedly urged visitors to attend the imminent demonstration by working female divers, and Sei remarked that it might be rather lonely for the divers if nobody watched.

So the three of them headed towards a roofed viewing area with tiered steps.

A motorboat approached, carrying two female divers. They weren’t wearing the navy-blue outfits seen in the television drama, but white diving clothes. According to the commentary, wearing white made a person appear larger underwater and had traditionally been thought to help protect divers from sharks.

The guide mentioned it casually, but the sea suddenly seemed frightening.

A wooden tub was thrown onto the surface, and a white-clad figure disappeared beneath the water. When the diver’s unprotected toes vanished without so much as a pair of flippers, Hagiwara felt a little anxious.

A short while later she resurfaced, holding a small abalone. Applause rose from the dozen or so spectators.

The dive was repeated a second time, then a third.

And that was when Hagiwara heard a strange noise.

*Fwee, fwee, fwee…*

It sounded like a weary bird calling, or perhaps someone whistling.

“…Ah.”

It was the same sound he had heard in the hotel room the previous night.

The guide’s explanation suddenly made everything fall into place.

“This sound is called *isobue*, or the sea whistle. It is a breathing technique distinctive to *ama* divers. Because they repeatedly move between the surface and the depths in a short space of time, they breathe out slowly and continuously to reduce the strain on their lungs.”

The guide went on to explain that the mournful sound had become one of the characteristic sounds of Ise-Shima, and had even been recognised in a selection of Japan’s notable coastal soundscapes.

“There’s an official list for sounds like that?”

“I wonder what else is on it.”

“People calling out to sell yakisoba, perhaps?”

Hagiwara barely heard his companions’ conversation. He was still listening to the divers’ haunting whistles.

He hadn’t sensed any presence in their room, nor had he been frightened in the slightest. But perhaps the rumour about a woman appearing there was connected to that sound.

If the whistle really belonged to a woman from the past, had she died at sea?

A place you could never follow someone into.

Bare feet slipped smoothly beneath the water, leaving only a few modest bubbles behind.

A droplet carried by the wind struck Hagiwara’s lips.

It tasted of salt.